Sometimes, mere survival may be considered heroic deed

My neighbor across the street has a dog named Murphy that spends a lot of time visiting me when I work outside. One day I turned to him and said something about what he was doing - I don't remember what - and ended by saying, "Mr. Murphy."

I was thunderstruck. Mr. Murphy, our next-door neighbor when I was a child growing up in a small Missouri town, hadn't tumbled from my memory for many, many years. He was tall and lean and lived in a one-room cabin hidden from view from our property by a tall, thick hedge that my father grew, perhaps to preserve our privacy.

Mr. Murphy may have had some family, but I recall that he spent most of his time alone or with his two mules that he pastured in a meadow down our road and used to plow the large garden he attempted to maintain on the back section of his property.

Early in the morning he walked those mules in harness up the road and back again later in the day. My sisters and I always watched and listened to the clopping of their hooves as Mr. Murphy talked to them.

As far as I know, this man did nothing heroic, but then, I was young, and no one said much about Mr. Murphy one way or another. I noticed, as I grew older, that Mr. Murphy came to our back door more and more frequently to ask for something to eat and commenting that he didn't feel well.

According to my mother upon my inquiry, Mr. Murphy and his family had been so poor that they lived in a cave during the Great Depression. That he and at least part of his family survived those years may have been his heroic deed.

Years passed, and I recall that the mules disappeared. Then one morning I awoke to find many cars and people in Mr. Murphy's yard. My father quietly told me that Mr. Murphy had ended his own life with his shotgun.

My memory of him now is that he was ill, lonely and poor, and I wonder if anyone else ever thinks about him. He is a ghost of the Depression and extreme poverty.

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Sometimes, mere survival may be considered heroic deed

Judith Ehrler Nixa My neighbor across the street has a dog named Murphy that spends a lot of time visiting me when I work outside. One day I turned to him and said something about what he was doing ?